San Antonio enjoys a diverse industry portfolio that continues to strengthen and build upon the city's historic economic base. Diverse industry strengths have emerged in recent years, making San Antonio one of the most recession resistant economies in the country. Combining the global connections with a focus on jobs and investments the City seeks to create a globally competitive and internationally connected economic development environment that supports entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes toward investment and job creation.

The Mayor and City Council are the community’s key decision makers. They focus on: the provision and efficiency of basic services; their district’s growth; capital improvement projects; land use and development; the city’s financial growth and economic development; and other important issues. Council members focus on how City policies not only meet the needs of their constituents, but also how they meet the goals of the entire community.

The 2014 City of San Antonio Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration marks the 27th anniversary of the City's celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. King. Join one of the largest marches and commemorations in the U.S. aimed at honoring and continuing Dr. King's legacy.

San Antonio is an amazing place. Throughout the SA 2020 process, you proved it by showing up in droves on weeknights and Saturdays to dream about our city`s future. At a time when other big American cities reflect the skeptical chords of our national discourse, we had local CEOs sitting side-by-side with grassroots activists in a dialogue that looked like folks chatting over the backyard fence.

Located just below the headwaters of the San Antonio River, Brackenridge Park and the surrounding area has been a gathering place since prehistoric times. There is evidence of human visitation and occupation extending back at least 11,000 years. Native American artifacts dating as early as 9200 B.C. have been found in the Olmos Basin and near Hildebrand Avenue. The Japanese Tea Garden, San Antonio Zoo and Sunken Garden Theatre are located at Brackenridge Park.

Luminaria is San Antonio's annual celebration of art and artists. Held in March and overseen by San Antonio's creative leaders, it is free of charge and showcases all art forms in an outdoor setting and inside various venues downtown. Luminaria spotlights San Antonio's cultural assets for local citizens and visitors alike.

The Promise Zones initiative is part of President Obama’s Ladders of Opportunity agenda, which holds that there’s a basic bargain in America. It says that no matter who you are or where you’re from, if you’re willing to work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to find a good job, feel secure in your community, and support a family. President Obama has fought for the middle class, and has made historic investments in making sure that there are ladders of opportunity for those working hard to make it to the middle class.

The President’s Ladders of Opportunity plan:

Rewards hard work by raising the minimum wage: The President’s plan raises the minimum wage, which would directly boost wages for 15 million workers and reduce poverty and inequality.

Provides high-quality preschool for every child: The President’s plan partners with states to expand high-quality preschool to every child, and to invest in early learning opportunities for our youngest children—birth through age three—by expanding Early Head Start, child care, and other health and education programs.

Partners with communities to help them rebuild and put people back to work: A child’s zip code should never determine her destiny; the Administration has begun to partner with Promise Zones across the country to help get them back on their feet.

Creates pathways to jobs for all Americans: The President’s plan offers incentives to companies that hire Americans who've got what it takes to fill a job opening, but have been out of work so long that no one will give them a chance anymore.

Strengthens families: The President has proposed to remove financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples; as well as continuing to support the critical role that fathers play in enhancing the well-being of their sons and daughters.

The Promise Zones designation commits the federal government to partner with local leaders who are addressing multiple community revitalization challenges with on-the-ground technical assistance to help navigate federal programs and regulations. This intensive engagement will help communities make the most of funding already available. Promise Zone designees will receive, through upcoming federal competitive grant competitions, increased access to proven tools to help them carry out their strategies. Promise Zone designees will also receive, if enacted by Congress, employer tax incentives to create jobs for Zone residents and attract private capital to disinvested places. Altogether, this package of proven tools will help local leaders accelerate efforts to revitalize their communities.

The participating agencies will be working with selected Promise Zones to improve the coordination among federal resources to enhance place-based strategies and increase the progress of community revitalization initiatives. As outcomes are achieved and best practices are developed, federal agencies will apply that learning in the delivery of federal funding and services to other communities working toward similar goals.

Benefits of Promise Zones

The five Promise Zones announced today are part of the 20 that will be announced over the next three years. These unique partnerships support local goals and strategies with:

Accountability for Clear Goals: Each Promise Zone has identified clear outcomes they will pursue to revitalize their community, with a focus on creating jobs, increasing economic activity, improving educational opportunities, and reducing violent crime. All Promise Zones will continuously track those outcomes, and have committed to sharing data across their community partners (private-sector, non-profits, federal, state, and local agencies, etc.) so that each partner can work towards improvement and accountability. The Promise Zones’ success at achieving those outcomes will be rigorously assessed by external evaluators.

Intensive Federal Partnership: Each Promise Zone will receive federal staff that will work on the ground, side-by-side local staff, to help communities break down regulatory barriers, use existing funds more effectively, and implement their economic visions. Modeled after the Administration’s successful Strong Cities Strong Communities and Strike Force initiatives, which have created unique partnerships between local and federal governments, these first five Promise Zones will benefit from intensive federal support at the local level to help them implement their economic and community development goals.

Help Accessing Resources: Where necessary to achieve their goals, Promise Zones will be able to access federal investments that further the goals of job creation, additional private investment, increased economic activity, improved educational opportunity, and reduction in violent crime. Promise Zones will receive priorities in accessing resources required to carry out their strategic plan from up to 10 agencies, including the Corporation for National and Community Service; the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, and the Treasury; and the Small Business Administration.

National Service: Each Promise Zone will be provided five full-time AmeriCorps VISTA members to support their strategic plan. These VISTAs will recruit and manage volunteers, and strengthen the capacity of Promise Zones to expand economic opportunity.

Investing in What Works: In order to be designated as a Promise Zone, these five communities have already demonstrated that they are pursuing evidence-based strategies to improve identified goals and outcomes, and have realigned their own state and local resources to meet these goals and outcomes. In short, these Promise Zone designees are already investing in programs and partnerships that have data proving their effectiveness. This same data will also help direct future federal investments to these Zones.

Cutting Taxes for Businesses: Finally, President Obama has proposed cutting taxes on hiring and investment in areas designated as Promise Zones – based upon the proven model of Empowerment Zones tax credits – to attract businesses and create jobs.

When a Promise Zone is designated, the federal government will help them in their efforts to access the resources they need to carry out the strategic plan for which they were competitively selected. This doesn’t mean that the Promise Zone will be able to access any funding they request, but they will be provided preferred access, as permissible under program rules, to the federal resources required to carry out their competitively selected strategic plan, which could include resources from the following programs and offices.

In urban areas, Promise Zone Finalists are the City of New Orleans working in the Claiborne Corridor, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, and Community Builders working in Cincinnati including Avondale and Clifton neighborhoods. In rural areas, the Louisiana Delta Coalition and Luna County in New Mexico are Finalists. In tribal communities, the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation representing the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and Opportunity Link representing Fort Belknap, Blackfeet, and Rocky Boy's reservations in Montana were named Finalists.

The purpose of selecting Promise Zone Finalists is to recognize communities whose applications reflect high-quality strategies, but which the agencies are not able to select among the five Promise Zone designations announced in January 2014. The agencies will seek to expand national awareness about Promise Zone Finalist communities and their revitalization strategies by posting information submitted in the Finalists' application abstracts on agency websites, and the agencies will communicate regularly with Finalists about opportunities for relevant funding or technical assistance that may become available, although no preference points or other advantages will be awarded as a result of Finalist status. Promise Zone Finalists will not be precluded from applying for Promise Zone designation in future selection rounds.

Preference points and priority considerations awarded under Promise Zones will be targeted to a broader set of programs related to place-based initiatives (beyond the existed preference between Promise Neighborhoods, Choice Neighborhoods and Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation) and with more weight than through the process used by Promise Neighborhoods, Choice Neighborhoods, and Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation.

Should Congress enact the Administration’s Promise Zones tax incentive proposal, private businesses would receive tax incentives for employing and investing in Promise Zones, to create jobs and attract additional private investments. The tax incentives would be available to businesses employing Promise Zone residents or investing in a geographic area encompassing the Promise Zone, and extending into a surrounding area not to exceed the eligible size and population as described in the Administration’s FY14 revenue proposals. The maximum population of the area in which a Promise Zone tax incentive can be claimed is 200,000; Promise Zones can have smaller populations. Under the Administration proposal, the Promise Zone tax incentives will remain available to businesses for 10 years.

All partner agencies are eligible to receive Promise Zone benefits. However, the lead applicant of the Promise Zone will have to certify the partnership through a partner agreement. The agreement will have to be included in any future grant applications or request for benefits.

Role of State & Local Government

The Promise Zone initiative supports local stakeholders who have come together to produce results, and who demonstrate commitment to stay the course. Commitment by local government to the goals of community revitalization – including creating jobs, increasing economic activity, increasing educational opportunities, reducing serious and violent crime, and leveraging private resources – is recognized as a major success factor in the sustainability and success of this work. Demonstrations of commitment by local government are weighted according to this importance in the selection criteria for the 2013 round of Promise Zones. The opportunity to apply for a Promise Zone designation provides interested urban, rural and tribal communities and non-governmental partners with the opportunity to engage local government leadership and discuss the working relationship and commitments that would be necessary for success.

State agencies set the specific rules and processes controlling federal funding for many important services, including Medicare and Medicaid, Transitional Assistance for Needy Families, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and its Employment and Training component, Community Action Program, Workforce Innovation Act funding, Title I education grants and Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnerships programs. Within federal statutes and regulations governing this funding, states establish an administrative structure of local organizations, both public and private, that deliver the services. To the extent that Promise Zone strategies require federal action with respect to these programs, the participating federal agencies will consider such requests from the affected state agencies and the local organizations charged with program delivery. Such requests will be considered in the context of specific commitments to results, and the tracking of outcomes for assessment by all Promise Zone stakeholders and agencies.

Eligibility & Selection

The first round of Promise Zone designations were made in January 2014. In this first round, only communities that were previously selected to participate in one of a related set of programs (Choice Neighborhoods, Promise Neighborhoods, Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation grants, etc.) were eligible to apply. These communities demonstrated their capacity in one area of the Promise Zones work and have already demonstrated their preparedness to broaden their efforts to additional revitalization priorities. Each of these programs is nationally competitive, and participation in each of them indicates a level of capacity among local institutions that promotes the success of a Promise Zone. A complete list of communities that meet the first round criteria..

The federal agencies will use the experience of working with this first set of communities to develop aspects of the Promise Zones initiative, such as technical assistance and data gathering, so that the initiative can support other communities more effectively in future years.

Communities eligible for first round urban Promise Zones designations: In urban areas, neighborhoods were eligible if they contain the geographic area that is the focus of one of the following types of implementation grants. The grantees/partners of these grants were expected to be applicants or key partners in the Promise Zones application.

Communities eligible for first round rural Promise Zones designations: One of the following grants must have been active within the Zone, and the grantees/partners of those grants were expected to be applicants or key partners in the Promise Zones application:

Promise Neighborhoods implementation grants

Stronger Economies Together

Communities eligible for first round tribal Promise Zones designations: One of the following grants must have been active within the Zone, and the grantees/partners of those grants were expected to be applicants or key partners in the Promise Zones application:

In the next cycle, all high poverty communities that meet the eligibility requirements will be able to apply. The participating agencies will release draft application materials for the next round as early as February for public comment. Interested communities can email to receive information as it is released.

Urban – Lead applicants for urban Promise Zones must be (i) local governments such as public housing authorities or other local government entities or (ii) nonprofit organizations applying in partnership with strongly committed local governments.

Rural – Lead applicants for rural Promise Zones must be (i) local governments such as towns or county boards, economic development corporations, or (ii) other nonprofit organizations applying in partnership with a strongly committed unit of local government.

Tribal – Lead applicants for tribal Promise Zones must be (i) Federally-recognized tribes; (ii) Recognized Tribes; tribal consortia approved by tribes, resolution, or equivalent; (iii) Alaska Native Corporations approved by tribes, resolution/by-laws, or equivalent; or (iv) nonprofit organizations. Any nonprofit organization, consortia or non-tribal government serving as lead applicant should have a resolution demonstrating commitment from the tribal governing body to be considered eligible.

The entities eligible to apply will be included in the selection materials for the next round.

Promise Zones were urban communities, rural communities, or Tribal communities proposed by applicant organizations, and must have met the following characteristics:

For urban Promise Zones

Promise Zones must encompass one or more census tracts across a contiguous geography.

The overall poverty rate within the Promise Zone must be over 20 percent.

The Promise Zone must contain at least one census tract with a poverty rate above 30 percent.

Promise Zone boundaries must encompass a population of at least 10,000 but no more than 200,000 residents.

An existing boundary of a current Promise Neighborhoods or Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant or Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation grant must be encompassed within the proposed Promise Zone boundaries.

A current Choice Neighborhoods or Promise Neighborhoods implementation grant, or a Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation grant, must be active within the Promise Zone, and the grantees/partners of those grants must be key applicants/partners for the Promise Zone application.

Local leadership, including the mayors of jurisdictions represented in the Promise Zone, must demonstrate commitment to the Promise Zone effort.

For applications across jurisdictional lines, a clear lead applicant must be identified, and commitment must be demonstrated by leadership of all jurisdictions involved.

Applications were scored according to the selection criteria and points set forth in the final Application Guide for the appropriate category of Promise Zone (urban, rural, or tribal). The final Urban Promise Zone Application Guide is posted to the initiative web page at HUD Promise Zones.

In order to be selected, an application must have scored a total of 75 points or more. Once scored, applications were ranked competitively within each of the three Promise Zone categories. Rural applications were ranked against other rural applications, tribal applications were ranked against other tribal applications, and urban applications were ranked against other urban applications.

An interagency team led by HUD ran the selection process for 2013, with USDA co-leading the rural and tribal selections. The Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services participated as reviewers and provided input on the application materials.

The Promise Zones initiative provides a vehicle to accelerate existing revitalization work in urban, rural, and tribal communities. Promise Zones is designed to build upon the capacity that communities have demonstrated in one area of the Promise Zones work and who can demonstrate their readiness to broaden their efforts to additional revitalization priorities.

The Promise Zones initiative builds on work done in the first term of the Obama administration by the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI), which coordinates activities under several signature programs to invest in distressed neighborhoods, including Choice Neighborhoods (Department of Housing and Urban Development), Promise Neighborhoods (Department of Education) and Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (Department of Justice). Other agencies and programs are also involved in Promise Zones, notably the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of the Treasury.

The agencies will continue to collaborate in the administration of their NRI programs, and work with grantees, technical assistance providers and other partners to target resources, improve practice and support cross-disciplinary neighborhood revitalization work in the field. Each program involved in the NRI will continue to have a larger pool of grantees than those communities designated as Promise Zones.

The Promise Zones initiative provides a vehicle to accelerate revitalization work in urban, rural and tribal communities in which key stakeholders have come together to identify a set of positive outcomes, develop an actionable strategy, encourage private investment and realign federal state and local resources to support achievement of those outcomes. Promise Zone designations will assist communities in working more effectively in several ways, beyond the work included in the NRI:

Providing Promise Zones tax incentives, if enacted by Congress, to stimulate hiring and business investment.

Providing engagement and technical assistance that is responsive to community needs across different areas of practice involved in community revitalization, expediting consideration of regulatory flexibility where needed and appropriate to use federal funds (both formula and competitive allocations) more effectively.

The Promise Zones initiative provides an additional set of advantages to communities that demonstrate strong revitalization plans. The Promise Zones initiative builds on the lessons from the NRI, and work with grantees involved in both NRI and Promise Zones will continue to inform future program improvements.

In July 2011, the Obama Administration launched SC2, an innovative and flexible pilot initiative to strengthen local capacity and spark economic growth in distressed local communities. SC2 evolved through ongoing conversations with mayors, foundations, nonprofits, and Members of Congress working in economically distressed communities who consistently highlighted challenges of local governments and the need for a strong, clear and coordinated relationship with the federal government. SC2 focuses on five goals:

Improve relationships between local and federal government by breaking down traditional silos and strengthening federal and local government partnerships.

Provide on-the-ground technical assistance and planning resources that are tailored to meet city needs and help cities utilize federal funds more efficiently and effectively.

Develop critical partnerships with governments, businesses, foundations and nonprofits to support economic growth.

Enhance local capacity by empowering communities to frame their own economic vision and leverage their physical, commercial, and social assets.

Encourage and strengthen regional collaboration between cities, towns, and counties to help them compete in an increasingly globalized world.

The SC2 Council is currently working to select a new round of SC2 cities in 2014. This is a separate selection process than Promise Zones, and only municipalities identified by certain distress indicators and other factors have been invited to apply for SC2 in 2013. These distress factors include chronic unemployment and poverty rates.

The Promise Zones initiative targets community revitalization, and while municipalities are required to demonstrate strong commitment to the projects, they are not the only stakeholder and may not be the grantees or beneficiaries under programs participating in the Promise Zones initiative. However, many of the best practices learned from SC2 will be adapted to apply to Promise Zones—namely, the direct federal partnership to provide technical assistance and flexibility to overcome locally identified problems.

Yes, communities can apply to participate in both initiatives. Applying for SC2 does not hurt or help a community’s chances to be designated as a Promise Zones, and having a Promise Zones designation does not hurt or help a community’s chances to be selected for SC2 in 2013-14.

In this first year, certain Native American Tribes are eligible to participate and apply to become a Promise Zone because they have participated in one or more of the following programs: Promise Neighborhoods implementation grant; Stronger Economies Together (SET); Rural Jobs Accelerator grant; or Partnership for Sustainable Communities (Rural Planning Grant). The complete list of eligible Native American tribes is available at HUD Promise Zones. All eligible tribes received a letter of invitation to apply sent on October 31, 2013.

In 2013, only communities that have previously been selected to participate in one of a related set of programs (Promise Neighborhoods implementation grant; Stronger Economies Together (SET); Rural Jobs Accelerator grant; or Partnership for Sustainable Communities (Rural Planning Grant)) will be eligible to apply. Each of these programs is nationally competitive, and participation in each of them indicates a level of capacity among local institutions that promotes the success of a Promise Zone.

Federal agencies will use the experience of working with the first set of communities to develop aspects of the Promise Zones initiative, such as technical assistance and data gathering, so that the initiative can support other communities more effectively in future years. Any interested community meeting the qualifying criteria may apply starting in 2014. The participating agencies intend to release draft qualifying and competitive criteria for public comment in the first months of 2014. Email to be included in a 2014 email listserv.